A variety of medical telemetry systems exist which allow the ECG waveforms of hospital patients to be monitored in real time. The ECG signals of the patient are sensed by a telemeter unit and a set of ECG leads, and are transmitted by the telemeter unit to a monitoring station (typically located in a central location). In ambulatory systems, the telemeter units are battery-powered wireless units that are worn by the patients. The telemeter units may also be designed to sense and transmit other types of physiologic data such as pulse oximetry, non-invasive and invasive blood pressure, end tidal carbon dioxide, respiration, and temperature.
The monitoring station, which typically includes a PC or other computer system coupled to a receiver, displays the ECG waveforms of multiple patients for viewing by a human operator. The monitoring station also applies software-implemented analysis algorithms to check for abnormalities, such as arrhythmia conditions, high and low alarm limits, and lost signals caused by loose leads. When such an abnormality is detected, an alarm indicator is displayed on the screen, and/or an audible alarm is sounded.
One problem with existing medical telemetry systems is that false alarms frequently occur as the result of short-term procedures performed on the patients by nurses and other clinicians. For example, a false alarm may occur when a clinician replaces or repositions the ECG leads for patient. As a result, clinicians are unnecessarily dispatched to patients"" rooms or otherwise distracted.
The present invention overcomes this problem by providing a xe2x80x9cprocedure alarm silencexe2x80x9d feature through which a clinician can remotely disable the alarm from the bedside or other patient location for a predetermined time. The feature is preferably invoked by the clinician through a predefined sequence of key depressions or other actions on the telemeter unit. Once invoked, the monitoring station temporarily inhibits some or all types of alarms. In a preferred embodiment, for example, the monitoring station disables the audible alarm for a two minute interval for all monitored abnormalities except class 1 arrhythmia conditions. A corresponding visual alarm is preferably kept active. The predefined key sequence is preferably selected such that patients and clinicians are unlikely to invoke the feature (disable audible alarms) by accident.